I seem to have made a conversion to console gaming, or at least it seems that way. I got my 360 and it came with Halo Reach, which was great and I got Halo 3 and Halo ODST too. I also got some console only games to go with them. What's odd is that I'm more than tempted to buy the console version of the PC games that I have. I bought Mass Effect 2 because I could get it for silly cheap, and then I had a problem with the save game so I got Mass Effect too, mostly so I could do everything and transfer the saves over to ME2.

It's not just ME though. I'm wanting to get the Dragon Age: Origin collection on both the PC so I have all the DLC for my PC copy and on the 360 as I'll probably play that more. I've always had a handheld console and played a lot of games on them, but this is different. It's never affected my PC gaming like this has. I can't remember when I last played a PC game. That said, I've not always been happy with a keyboard for gaming. It is so much easier to use a thumb for moving than it is to hold down a key.

Has anyone else experienced something like this, perhaps even the opposite?

dragon age is infinitely better on a PC. you just don't have the kind of control on a 360. if you don't care about being able to control everything easier then don't worry about it, but i personally can't stand it.

i'm something of a switcher, depends on the game i'm playing more than anything else.

It's not a comparison thread, if that's what you're thinking. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a large shift in their gaming for whatever reason.

Trimaj said:

dragon age is infinitely better on a PC. you just don't have the kind of control on a 360. if you don't care about being able to control everything easier then don't worry about it, but i personally can't stand it.

i'm something of a switcher, depends on the game i'm playing more than anything else.

Hmmm, an interesting point. Mostly I just left the other party characters to do their own thing as I'm not very tactical.

I wonder though, would I use my PS2 more if I moved it to my desk? I'd need to get a TV so I can use it, which I plan to get somewhen.

I play more on the console now, but the games that I used to play on the PC (adventure, FPS, strategy and RPGs) I still play on PC. It's just that I've branched out more than when I was playing solely on PC- I play actioners/platformers, driving games and sports games on console. However action/platformers are the games I play the most.

For example, last few games played on PC- Civ V, Half Life 2, New Vegas
last few games played on console: Darksiders, AC: Brotherhood, Madden 10.

I mostly made the jump when my computer started to not be able to run things as well. My 360 doesn't require upgrading.

Mostly my reason as well. I know that a PC can be a superior gaming machine, but -- from my point of view - not a very cost effective one. Constantly upgrading is hideously costly, more so than replacing an ordinary gaming console. And last but not least, I can play most of what I really like on my 360. And PC games no longer have the secondary resale market they used to have years ago.

I don't get the KeyboardMouse/Controller thing. You don't need an XBox to play with a controller, you need a controller to play with a controller. Especially on those half-assed console ports like ME2 it wouldn't make an iota of difference. Just don't try it on TF2. I do play AssCreed and Darksiders with a controller. Even F1 2010. Especially since many "PC games" now have a pre-setting for the 360 controller anyway. In fact, for Darksiders I had to download some ini to get it to recognize my Logitech gamepad properly. I ain't givin' Microsoft no money.

And there is the next thing. I am not a console gamer because I am broke. I cannot afford a console. I definitely cannot afford the games, and even though we have a GameStop in DÃ¼sseldorf, I'm not sure we have the same kind of used games thing going on (that has long ruined the industry in the US). I think StarCraft2 was the last game I bought full-price and the next one will be Portal2 (and even that's technically 10% off already). How do you like that for the financial debate?

Though if I did have the spare money, I'd go for a Wii anyway. It's the one console that is the most unlike the PC. I don't quite get why anyone with a well-working gaming PC would get a 360, there is almost literally no benefit. Halo isn't one and neither is paying an extra monthly fee to be called names online
The PS3 I'd really only get if I were into JRPGs. I guess. I'd still ask why someone had a PS3, but I'm sure they could give me a good reason. I just can't think of one myself.

I have to agree with Mr.2P on this one. All the people who say that PC gamers have to constantly upgrade their PC to be able to play games or enjoy them are silly. It makes no sense to upgrade to the newest and shiniest piece of hardware that comes out every 4 months. Sure if you have the money to do that and no life outside of gaming, go for it but it is so unnecessary in the scope of enjoying games. Look at the hardware in a 360 then look at the average gaming PC anymore...

My PC can play games that look just as nice on here as they do on any 360 I also built it ages ago. I just don't understand that argument is all. Personally the reason I haven't branched out into the console world more, and I would love to get into it (a 360 or something would make my day) but I don't have enough money to throw away on stuff like that anymore. Bills to pay, mouths to feed, sorry to see the day come but waaay more important things going on for me.

I don't get the KeyboardMouse/Controller thing. You don't need an XBox to play with a controller, you need a controller to play with a controller.

True, and not only that, the controller issue would actually be a point in favor of PCs, not against it. Consoles have their controller, some may have two different ones, PCs have every kind of controller you can find. Mouse, keyboard, controller, joystick, wheel, no console can compete with that.

I never made the switch to consoles, largely because I find them to be pretty useless. Why spend lots of money on a console and it's way too expensive games, when I have a PC that I need anyway?
And as was already mentioned, here in Germany we don't have the possibility to return used games, which makes the cost-factor even worse. Most games I play are horrible to play with controllers, and I'm not exactly a fan of controllers anyway, not to mention that the menus are a pain in the you know what. I still remember EA ruining the NHL-series by turning it more and more into a console-game for no apparent reason, with menus that were a far cry from mouse-controlled ones, stopped using the capabilities of PCs and then started to wonder why no one was buying the PC-version anymore.

The one big advantage consoles truly have, are that you see hardly any lazy ports compared to the PC-market, because the games are mostly developed for consoles first anyway.

Now, if developers would stop acting like every person in the world is a huge fan of online play and dumbed down versions of everything (remembering the developer-comment about SW:BF2s space fights as replacement for TIE-Figher, please ), I'd greatly appreciate it. I want something with a feeling of immersion to it, not some random countdown of lives or killpoints.

A game that lasts about 5 hours but has an oh so great online-mode isn't going to cut it either...

I'm not very computer savvy but I used to be a PC gamer when I was younger (in addition to consoles). But PC gaming became very annoying because of crashes, freezes, and so and so on.

My 360s have rarely froze and almost never crash, so my gaming experience is fluid and reliable. I know that I'm going to start a game, enjoy it for the few hours I have to play, and then come back to it later and flawlessly start from a saved file. But in my PC gaming experience, things could go wrong quickly. Saved files can mysteriously become corrupted, the game can crash in the middle of an important sequence--thereby forcing me to reboot and restart (which takes a lot longer than restarting a console game).

So as I previously stated, 360 > all

EDIT:

I've also been lucky enough to not experience a 360 RROD, and one of my two 360s is like 4 or 5 years old.

I hate anecdotes of bad luck. Just Cause 2 overheats my graphics card and Oblivion is so over-modded that it quits sometimes over the many conflicts (less on Vista than on XP, surprisingly). That's it. And I didn't even built the damn thing myself, which usually gets you boo'd out of PC Gaming threads.

I've also been lucky enough to not experience a 360 RROD, and one of my two 360s is like 4 or 5 years old.

Grrr...you lucky @#$@ Me, I lost no less than 4 360's to the gods damned RROD. But I'm thinkin that I probably wouldn't have lost them if I had simply laid the console on its side instead of the advertised upright position so it'd get the air it needed.

Ok, I may have exaggerated with the "constant upgrading" thing for PC. But back when I was a more avid PC gamer -- before the PS2 and original Xbox came out -- it was a huge hassle to get a PC game only to find out your crappy PC couldn't run it because it needed more memory, the crappy video card it had laughed itself silly at the requirements of such and such game, and so on.

I know things have changed, and you can possibly run older games and even newer ones with the same PC you purchased 3 years ago without having to perform any major upgrade. But every so often there will come this sexy beast of a game that will demand such an upgrade. However, if this game also comes out on the 360 and you can play it in the comfort of your couch, then why bother with the PC vversion at all?

There are niches and there are niches, of course. PC will undoubtedly be the platform of choice for MMOs and RTS because the consoles simply cannot offer the control scheme such games demand. But for everything else, there's your trusty 360.

imo, Halo Wars showed that a RTS could be built and played effectively on a console format. That game's controls were flawless, IIRC. Had a ton of fun with it. It should have paved the way for more creative RTS 360 games. I wonder why it hasn't...

I know things have changed, and you can possibly run older games and even newer ones with the same PC you purchased 3 years ago without having to perform any major upgrade. But every so often there will come this sexy beast of a game that will demand such an upgrade. However, if this game also comes out on the 360 and you can play it in the comfort of your couch, then why bother with the PC vversion at all?

Usually because the 'high' PC requirements will be to play it at graphics settings far beyond anything the 360 can do, whereas the low settings your 3 year old PC can handle only look a little bit better than the 360...

I just love how this thread degenerated into yet another PC vs. console thread. Nyah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

It didn't. People only said why exactly they never switched to a console, which just happen to be all the usual vs-arguments brought up in those evil threads.

I'd never get into a console vs PC argument. I only ever argue everything vs XBox. Because that thing is the worst thing to ever conjure up pixels. Mostly brown pixels, too. Even the VirtualBoy had more merit.

However, if this game also comes out on the 360 and you can play it in the comfort of your couch, then why bother with the PC vversion at all?

Interesting that you should mention that. I don't watch a lot of TV and I'm mostly on my PC. To play my 360 I just pick up my controller and look at the second monitor I have. Essentially there's no difference between me playing on my PC and playing on the 360.

Valyn said:

imo, Halo Wars showed that a RTS could be built and played effectively on a console format. That game's controls were flawless, IIRC. Had a ton of fun with it. It should have paved the way for more creative RTS 360 games. I wonder why it hasn't...

It could be because its success has been attributed to it being a Halo game. I expect there are people out there who think that an RTS on a console just doesn't work and that any success Halo Wars had is down to Halo fans buying it just because it's Halo.